The Thief on the Cross

Jim ButlerLuke 23:39–43

What does the conversion of a man guilty of insurrection and murder on the day of his execution reveal about the grace of God? This exposition of Luke 23:39–43 traces the marks of sovereign grace in the dying thief — his fear of God, his ownership of personal guilt, his acknowledgment of Christ's sinlessness, and his faith cast entirely upon a crucified Lord — before turning to the willing and able Savior who, in the extremity of his own suffering, assures a notorious criminal of immediate paradise. The sermon argues that justification is by faith alone, apart from works, baptism, or religious knowledge, and that the distinguishing mercy shown to one thief and withheld from the other is the clearest emblem of sovereign grace. Hearers are pressed not to presume on a deathbed conversion but to cast themselves now, by grace, upon the mercy of Christ.